2(7) This Act is to be interpreted and applied, insofar as the context permits, in a manner which promotes the inter-jurisdictional harmony of the law of personal property security in Canada.

COMMENT

1. The proposed new section 2(7) is already found in the PPSAs in effect in Atlantic Canada. Its purpose is to encourage interpretation of each province’s PPSA, not as an isolated local statute, but in the context of its roots in similar legislation in force elsewhere, and in light of the increasingly cross-border nature of secured financing transactions.

1. The provision would not, of course, compel a court to endorse even a majority line of jurisprudence from courts in other provinces or territories that it considers to be plainly wrong. Moreover, like any other interpretative canon, the proposed principle would come into play only as an aid to resolving ambiguity and not where the legislation itself were clear on the appropriate resolution. Nor would the principle apply to any issue on which a particular province’s legislature has consciously introduced a local variation from personal property security law in force elsewhere.